


Götterdämmerung

by tree_and_leaf



Category: House of Cards Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Ficlet, Foreshadowing, M/M, Wagner, missing moment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-11
Updated: 2011-04-11
Packaged: 2017-10-17 22:52:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/182167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tree_and_leaf/pseuds/tree_and_leaf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>FU begins to understand what Elizabeth sees in Wagner.  A missing moment from the very end of <i>The Final Cut</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Götterdämmerung

Urquhart had never understood what his wife saw in Wagner. Especially the Ring. All that turgid over-blown Germanic pomposity! Not his style at all.

“It’s the power thing,” Tim Stamper had said, grinning up at him, “surprised it doesn’t do it for you, really.” But though Tim – poor Tim – had had many admirable qualities, music appreciation had not been among them. Urquhart was no Wagnerian, but he had lived with one long enough to know that the Ring wasn’t an ode to power. It was about giving it up, or what might force you to do so. And giving up power didn’t suit him – or Elizabeth.

“We can be safe still,” she had said, bracing as ever. Yet there was an odd flicker behind her eyes, and Urquhart had felt the cold weight in his stomach grow heavier, not lighter.

Power, and what made you give it up. As he walked out to the unveiling ceremony, he found he was trying to recall how the final bars of _Götterdämmerung_ went.

Preposterous. Not his style at all. And yet… well, maybe he would listen to them later. If there was time. He was trying hard not to be melodramatic - another Wagnarian vice that didn't suit him - but it felt like the very last act of all.

At any rate, perhaps there was something in it, after all. For Elizabeth, if not him.


End file.
